An Interview with Blood of Angels

An absolutely blistering new single from Blood of Angels just dropped, and this track wastes no time giving you some amazing riffs, memorable guitar hooks, and bursting into a thrashing, high impact, metal soiree that hits hard and leaves its mark.

"The Last Rights" starts off with some great trudging guitars, lead hooks, and awesome time signatures to introduce the track. This section sort of gets you prepared for what's to come and gives you something fun that you want before it bursts into a bit more of a straight heavy approach.

What's awesome about the intro of this track is that it goes through several different sections and showcases how the band is able to sort of put together these different parts to create one confluent piece of work.

You have chords, lead sections, and thrashy parts all built into each other and when the main parts are there, it's probably the heaviest it gets.

This goes straight into the first verse and this is where things get even more brutal than they were to start with.

What sort of blows my mind about just getting into the verse section, is that the drumming is just insane. The crash symbols are being destroyed, the energy level is absolutely through the roof, and you can feel that a lot of the band is sort of feeding off of that.

The drummer is the entire backbone of this track and it's amazing how a lot of these guys push off of that to gain extra strength and help push this whole thing through the roof.

The main riff itself is sort of intricate but it destroys. It's got that fiery performance coming from the guitars and bass guitar, and the vocals come in with a deepening, gritty approach.

The vocalist is absolutely killer because he can do different kinds of almost death metal style scream approaches. There's the deep, grueling one, and then he's got more of a high pitched approach too along with plenty of surprises around the corners.

The vocalist adds the character to this song. That goes without saying. The performance is outstanding because again, he's sort of feeding off of the band and just delivering a closed-fisted, aggressive and in your face kind of vocal style that works amazingly with the rest of the track itself.

As the track unfolded does indeed break into more of a blackened sort of death metal style, showing how the band is able to pull together a slew of influences under the genre and make it work perfectly.

The drumming turns into more of a speed thrash style, overtone, the vocals hold out those grueling notes, and everything is just high-octane.

One of my favorite aspects about this track is that they do indeed have a pretty ripping guitar solo section that beckons bands like Slayer.

This track never loses that insane energy, even for a second. It's a lot to chew on and a lot to soak in and you can tell that this is coming from a band that knows how to play their instruments and perform.

I think more importantly than that, these guys have a real love for their craft. When I say that I don't just mean playing their instruments or singing, I mean writing songs together that just come through with amazing sonic force and drive.

It's a brilliant combination of old and new school metal approaches and they really attack that with attention to detail but still with a gusto and sort of vivacious feel and attitude.

This is a song that hits like a sucker punch to the gut and that's exactly what anyone who listens to thrash metal is going to be looking for.

Now, after listening to the single I took it upon myself to take a bit of a deep dive into the band's back catalog on Spotify. This was mind-blowing for me because they have a bunch of releases that are ridiculous. Tracks released late last year like "Minds of The Broken" also hold little back in the way of delivering powerful metal approaches, and there isn't also an album from 2024 called Failure of Faith which is just an absolute opus.

This is all well worth your time, especially if you are a big fan of metal and it's many subgenres.

These guys are able to roll so many different styles of the genre into one and do it so consistently that it should definitely not be missed.

After diving so deep into this new single and the rest of their stuff, I know I wanted to have a sit-down with the band themselves to find out where all this comes from and what might be next for them.

So, why you listen to this track and the rest of it, have a read through of our interview with Blood of Angels below.

Don't forget where you heard this first.

I'm hearing a few different approaches to this single! Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

Before we began recording the new album I was listening to a lot of Lamb of God, Pantera, Amon Amarth, and Cradle of Filth.  I guess some of that rubbed off in the musical direction for the single.

Did you record this at a home setup, or at a big studio?

We tracked it at Underground Studios in Tampa, FL.  Mixed with Preston DiCarlo at Master Audio Works; and had the song mastered at Sound Lab in New York City.

Do you guys write songs together, or is there one main person who writes and brings it to the band?

This album is a lot more of a collaborative effort than the previous.  Usually, I (guitarist) Aaron Robison come in with the song’s foundation.  Then Jonathan and Maggot add their musical elements to the song.  After that is done Randy writes the lyrics.  With “The Last Rites” I came in with the structure and musical foundation.  I also had the chorus written, with the theme of the song in mind.  Then Randy penned the rest of the lyrics to work with the chorus.

How did this all start for you as a band?

Blood of Angels began in 2017 when my previous band ran its course.  Instead of continuing the old band name, I felt that a new band needed to be created with a different sound.  The current lineup has been together since 2019.  It has been a wonderful journey, artistic journey growing together with my bandmates.

Are you performing live right now?

Last September we completed a European tour performing in Poland, Hungary, Austria, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Yes, we have a couple of shows in Florida next month. February 13^th in Tampa and February 14^th in Atlantic Beach near Jacksonville.  We also have a festival date planned for July 18^th in Tampa, FL.

We are currently booking a US tour for August.

Now that this is out, what's next for you?

We are planning a couple more single releases in March and May.  The full-length album is to be released in July; we will be also releasing accompanying videos and doing as much promotion as possible for the release of the album.

Who's in your headphones right now?

Lately I have been listening to Immortal, Emperor, and Dark Tranquility.  Since we are in the winter season I have been diving into Scandinavian metal bands.

What would you tell people they can expect on this release?

“The Last Rites” is a song about the final ritual of saying goodbye to those we love as they pass on from this life.  Musically, I think it is a blend of the rhythmic pocket groove that is evident in southern metal bands with black metal sensibilities.  I like what we did for the interlude section with a call and response solo section between the bass and drums.

Before we go, what would you like to express to fans of the music?

All I can say is thank you for everything!  I know we are not the biggest bands, far from it.  But we have had many awesome and exciting moments.  We have won multiple independent music awards.  We have performed all over the U.S. and most of Europe.  All these things would not have been possible without the support of the wonderful people who have given our music a chance.  So again, Thank You For Everything!  Our achievements belong to all of you as well.

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